


Titans: Pandora's Box

by ThatsAStepLadder



Series: Earth-53 [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), The Flash (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Young Justice Fusion, Autumn, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Family Fluff, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-New 52, Readable as a One Shot, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26590321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatsAStepLadder/pseuds/ThatsAStepLadder
Summary: The original New Teen Titans are now all grown up and have an autumn cookout at the Park-West house. What can possibly go wrong? (Hint, they're superheroes. Something's bound to go wrong.)(Set in a DCU with a logically consistent timeline where characters are allowed to grow up, based largely on pre-Flashpoint continuity with elements from the New 52 and Rebirth, Young Justice, and the DCAU.)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Donna Troy, Dick Grayson & Wally West, Dick Grayson & Wally West & Donna Troy & Koriand'r & Victor Stone & Raven & Garfield Logan, Dick Grayson/Koriand'r, Garfield Logan & Victor Stone, Garfield Logan/Raven, Jai West & Iris West II & Mar'i Grayson, Jay Garrick & Wally West, Koriand'r & Donna Troy, Linda Park/Wally West
Series: Earth-53 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934275
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Titans: Pandora's Box

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

In the suburbs of Keystone City, Kansas, it was looking like the makings of a fine autumn day. A gentle breeze blew through the air, scattering yellow-orange leaves from the stately elm tree planted nearby across the neatly manicured lawn. The scent of charcoal and ground beef wafted through the air, courtesy of a kettle grill and the silver-haired gentleman, dressed in a maroon corduroy and blue jeans, dutifully attending to it with a spatula in his hand. Across the lawn ran a pair of kids - a dark-haired boy and a redheaded girl, approximately six years of age, seemingly engrossed in a game of their own invention.

And upon a hammock, strung between the elm and a slightly less mighty aspen, lay Wally West, dressed in a long-sleeved t-shirt and khakis, and much to the chagrin of his wife, reading Dickens aloud.

“Can you _not_ right now, honey?” asked Linda Park-West, plucking the dog-eared copy of _A Tale of Two Cities_ from her husband’s grasp and eyeing it like it was an issue of _Playboy_ (and not one of the old ones, with the good articles). “It’s not that I don’t find your reading voice sexy as hell, but we’re having guests over and I could really use your help.”

“I was almost done anyway,” Wally mumbled, cracking a smirk at his wife as he rolled off the hammock, stood up, and kissed her on the cheek, all in less time than it took her to blink. When they first started dating, Linda wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to living with the Fastest Man Alive (and _no_ , that title didn’t apply to the bedroom), but over time, seeing her husband do things in super-speed became as normal as brushing her teeth in the morning.

“Great,” Linda replied, nodding her head and turning to survey the picnic table set up on the back porch, which was currently bare. “You can start with-”

Before she could finish her sentence, he was gone and she was left staring at empty air. That, she was also used to, and she really should have seen it coming. 

Linda turned toward the man tending the grill, peering over his shoulder and nodding her head in approval at the pile of grilled meat (and meat substitutes) that were piling up in a baking dish on a table nearby.

“Like what you see, Mrs. West?” the man asked, grinning as he twirled his spatula between thumb and forefinger. 

“They look fantastic, Jay,” she replied. She looked to the side, at the tofu patty that was sizzling on the grill, and then back at the man standing before her, taking note of the wrinkles that lined his face, which seemed to have multiplied over the last few years. “Thanks for volunteering to do this. Joan would have loved it.”

The man - Jay Garrick, Wally’s surrogate grandfather of sorts and the first Flash, nodded in reply. A hint of sadness was visible in the corners of his eyes, as it always was these days when the subject of his dearly departed wife came up. “She always did like seeing you youngsters growing up. It’s the least I can do to help when I can, even in my old age.”

“Please, Jay,” Wally chimed in, appearing in a blur of red next to Linda and wrapping an arm around her waist. Instinctively, Linda leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’ve seen fifty-year-olds who look older than you do. Your best years are still ahead of you.”

“I beg to differ, but thank you,” Jay said, chuckling as he turned back and evacuated the tofu burger into the dish, adding yet another to the stack of at least a dozen already, in addition to hamburgers and hot dogs. “Expecting a big crowd, huh?”

“Well…” Wally creased his brow in thought, tapping a toe impatiently against the ground. For all his good traits, he could hardly stay still for very long. One would think having super-speed would afford one more time to relax, but Linda had been proven wrong about that a long time ago. “It’s only the old gang - Kory and the kids, Vic, Gar, Raven, and Troia. But there’s always a few that come by uninvited. I’m half-expecting Bart to crash the party and drag half the Titans with him.”

Linda couldn’t help but notice her husband’s face fall as he listed off the names, despite the facade of light-heartedness he tried to preserve. There was a conspicuous absence in that list, and they all knew it: Wally’s closest friend in the entire world besides her, Dick Grayson. Formerly Robin, then Nightwing, now thought dead by all except a choice few thanks to some scheme by Batman.

She shared a glance with Wally, reaching up and gently rubbing at his shoulders to reassure him that everything would be okay, and then deciding to change the subject. It would inevitably come up again later, but for now, it didn’t help anything to dwell on it. “Is the table done, darling?” she asked.

“Sure is. It’s been done for a while, actually,” Wally said, smiling once more and pointing a thumb behind himself toward the picnic table. Linda turned to follow his gesture, and was very pleased to see the table adorned with a red checked tablecloth, plates, napkins, glasses, and silverware. And they weren’t even plastic. What did she do to deserve such a good husband?

“Is that ‘a while’ in human terms or Flash terms?” Jay asked, cracking a smirk toward Wally.

“Flash terms, of course,” he replied. Linda did the calculation in her head - she figured that ‘a while’ in Flash terms meant five minutes at most. Still, the table looked great, so she couldn’t complain. She half-figured that, even after seven years of marriage, they’d still be eating off of paper plates many nights. She was happy to be proven wrong.

“What else needs done babe?” Wally asked, withdrawing his arm from around her and taking her hand instead, barely faster than she could comprehend what was going on. “Are sides…”

“Done,” she said, giving an affirmative nod. “Baked beans are on the counter, the chips are next to them, and the watermelon’s all sliced. I got that all done while you were finishing _Great Expectations_ earlier.”

“That quickly?” he asked her, gently nudging her in the side with his elbow and earning an eye roll in response. 

“You get what I-” Linda’s train of thought was abruptly derailed and crashed into a crowd of pedestrians at Keystone Central by a tug on her pant leg and a cry of “Mommy!” that was half drowned-out by sobs.

Glancing down, she found the redheaded girl - her daughter Iris, or as friends and family called her, Irey - standing there, her pigtails filled with twigs and fallen leaves and dirt strewn across her cheeks underneath the large tears that cascaded down her face.

Linda knelt down to her level, her brow twisting in concern as she placed a hand on Irey’s cheek to wipe aside the tears. “Oh, darling,” she cooed, fingers moving into her hair and pulling out a dead leaf. “What happened?”

“J-Jai and I were playing superheroes and he ran into me and I fell…” the girl blubbered, sniffling as she looked back at her mother. Anticipating Linda’s next question, Irey continued. “It hurts…”

“Okay.” Linda gave Irey a nod and a reassuring smile. She didn’t go back to school to be a pediatrician for no reason. The whole medical school thing may have been a bust, but it had prepared her for about any medical emergency her kids could throw at her. “Where does it hurt?”

“Everywhere…” Irey said. For a moment, it was as if she couldn’t decide to cry more or suck it up and be a big girl, and she just collapsed into her mother’s chest instead. Linda’s arms encircled her, holding her tight in her warm embrace

“Want Daddy to kiss it all better?” she whispered, and Irey gave a giggle-cry in response. Without warning, Linda scooped her up in her arms, depositing the girl in the waiting grasp of her father. She took a step back, and couldn’t help but smile as Wally placed pecks all over their daughter’s face. That was one twin down, now where was the other?

Linda looked around the yard until she found Jai, her handsome little man, perched up in the elm and scrambling to get a foothold to the next branch up, blissfully ignorant of his sister’s plight. 

She strolled up to the tree, clearing her throat and catching the boy’s attention. Was he even aware that his sister was hurt? She thought she’d taught him better than to leave behind a woman in distress like that, even if that woman was his twin sister. “Jai Henry West,” she declared, resting her hands on her hips and scowling. “What are you doing all the way up there?”

Jai startled, his tiny hands slipping a little bit from where they were clinging to the tree trunk, and for a moment Linda worried she’d caused him to fall as well. But he managed to hold on, a blush on his cheeks like he’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Oh, hey, M-mom… I saw a weird green bird up here so I wanted to go catch it.”

“A green bird, you say?” All of a sudden, Linda’s worry about Irey evaporated, and she raised an eyebrow in curiosity, her scowl deepening. Why, that good-for-nothing, carefree, scoundrel! He could have at least made his presence known before luring her son up into a tree that he probably couldn’t get down from on his own.

“Garfield Logan, show yourself at once!” she shouted to seemingly nobody in particular, loud enough to easily get the attention of the entire backyard and probably the entire city block. As if on cue, a wren, sporting green plumage across every inch of its body, flitted out of the top branches of the tree and onto the lowest branch.

Before Linda’s eyes, the wren metamorphosed into a man about Wally’s age, with green skin the same shade as the bird’s feathers and hair just a few shades darker. He gave her a toothy grin, marked by the presence of a pair of tiny fangs protruding from his bottom teeth, and hung upside- down from the branch, with hardly a care in the world.

“Hey there, Linda,” he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and trying to avoid meeting her piercing gaze.

“Don’t ‘hey there’ me, Mr. Logan. What were you thinking? Why, I ought to-” she started, only to be interrupted by a blur of scarlet beside her - undoubtedly her husband coming to welcome the first of his old teammates to their humble abode.

With Irey in tow, Wally came into view, and the green-skinned man - Garfield Logan, better known as Changeling of the Titans or as Tork, hero of the sci-fi series Space Trek 2122 - flipped up onto his feet to meet him. The two embraced in a quick hug, and Wally grinned back at Gar. “Glad to see you could make it, dude. Jay cooked so many tofu burgers for you, I was worried they wouldn’t get eaten.”

Garfield laughed, glancing over toward the older speedster and giving him a nod, and then looked back at Wally. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’s been too long since we’ve all been together, the seven of us… well, six.”

“Yeah.” Wally’s face fell again, and Gar’s went with it. “You haven’t heard anything, have you?”

Gar shook his head, looking down toward the ground and slumping his shoulders. “Sorry, man. Not a word. He’s going to be okay, though. He has to be, he’s Nightwing, y’know? He’s gotten out of worse scrapes before and been perfectly fine. Batman wouldn’t have selected him for this if he didn’t think he could do it.”

“Well… yeah.” Wally nodded slightly in response, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. “Sometimes I hate Batman.”

Linda could sympathize with that. The goddamned Batman was someone she was thankful for, but sometimes… Well, most of the time, really, his complicated web of gambits and contingencies proved to be more of a hindrance to her husband and his fellow heroes than a help. Dick had mentioned on multiple occasions how he didn’t want to follow in his mentor’s footsteps, and she could certainly see why.

But right now, she had bigger concerns than whatever the Dark Knight was up to in that multi-million dollar mansion of his. “I hate to intrude,” she said, stepping between Wally and Gar and putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “But my son is still stuck in a tree.”

The three of them looked back up toward Jai, who had managed to haul himself up to the next highest branch while none of them were looking, and was barely holding on.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Gar said, grabbing onto the tree trunk and then turning himself into a chimpanzee to scale the tree with ease. He let out a cry as he swung from branch to branch, and took Jai in his arms.

Linda smiled at the way Jai’s face lit up once he was in the chimpanzee’s grasp and on his way to the ground. For all his faults, Gar was clearly good with kids. She wondered, not for the first time, why he didn’t have any of his own.

Irey joined Jai in hugging Garfield, the twins both delighted to see their favorite shapeshifting honorary uncle. “Do an elephant next!” Irey said in the middle of a fit of giggles, jumping up and down.

Gar, still in chimpanzee form, tapped a finger to his chin as if in thought, and then shook his head. “Maybe another day, I think last time I turned into an elephant your mom got mad at me for leaving holes in the yard.”

“Among other things…” Linda muttered toward Wally. Suffice it to say they were lucky to have access to the Justice League’s landscaper, because their entire backyard was hardly recognizable after a single elephant stampede.

“How about a dog instead?” Garfield offered, an offer to which the twins eagerly agreed. A moment later, he’d shifted into a golden retriever and had begun chasing Jai and Irey across the yard. 

Linda let out a sigh of relief, laughing as she watched her kids gleefully toss a playground ball over at Garfield. Hopefully those three wouldn’t cause too much trouble for the moment, because they all still had a long day ahead of them.

“So that’s one down,” Wally commented, taking a sip from a glass of iced tea that he must have grabbed while Linda was preoccupied. “Only four to go. I haven’t heard from anyone else yet, but… wait a sec.”

He vanished and reappeared in a blur, now with both his Justice League communicator and phone in hand. “Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “Still nothing.”

“I’m sure they’re just running a little behind,” Jay said, putting the lid back on the grill and taking the dish of meat in his free hand. “Where do you want these?”

“Here, let me take them,” Linda said with a smile. “You go rest.” Jay was a godsend and an amazing friend, but his age was starting to show no matter what Wally said, and his wife’s passing had made him look all that much older. He deserved a little rest and relaxation.

Before Jay could protest, she took the meat and brought it over to the picnic table, setting it right next to the ketchup and mustard and a package of hot dog buns that were a little beaten-up from Wally’s high-speed grocery shopping.

“Wow, smells delicious back here,” came a woman’s voice, and Linda looked up to see a tall, dark-haired woman, dressed in a white romper with a floral pattern, a camera around her neck and a pair of rather impressive-looking biceps on her arms. In one hand, she carried an ornate dish, filled to the brim with some sort of cucumber-based salad.

When Linda first met this woman, she’d thought she looked like Wonder Woman’s little sister, and she was right. “When did you get here, Troia?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning over to look into the dish. “And what’s that?”

“Just now,” Troia replied, setting the dish down on the table so Linda could get a better look. “And this is a traditional Themysciran salad. It’s got cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, and Feta cheese, for those of us who are watching our figures.”

Linda stifled a snort, looking the Amazon up and down. As if she had to worry about her figure. But it was a nice gesture nonetheless. “You really didn’t have to bring anything,” she commented, a small smile tugging at her lips. “But I appreciate it.”

“It’s only polite as a guest,” Troia said with a nod, spotting Wally talking to Jay over by the grill and flagging him down. “Hey, West!”

As Wally turned and speed-walked over to meet Troia, Linda was reminded (not for the first time) of the former Wonder Girl’s duality - somehow, she exuded femininity just like her older sister did, but was also treated by Wally and his friends as being just like one of the guys. Linda had tried to pull off both sides of the equation, but couldn’t help but be a little jealous of how well Troia did it.

“Troia!” Wally pulled her into a brief side hug, pulling away after just a few seconds and offering her a seat in one of the few, scattered lawn chairs set out beside the grill. “Glad you could make it. Was the ride okay?”

“I took the teleporter, it was fine. Vic was right behind me, he’ll be here soon, I’m sure,” Troia replied, taking a seat in the chair and crossing her legs. Linda took a seat beside her, glad to have some female company at long last. 

“Oh, hey, Troia.” Gar, still in dog form, ran up to her and took a seat by her feet, both the West twins perched upon his back and clinging to his fur. “Don’t mind me, I’m just going to paws and rufflect down here.”

He curled up beside her, letting the kids off, and both Linda and Troia rolled their eyes at his terrible sense of humor. Wally’s wasn’t much better, Linda had to admit, especially since the twins were born. He’d been practicing his dad jokes since she’d told him she was pregnant, and they didn’t get much better as time went on.

“So,” Linda said, brushing a stray lock of hair away from her face as she turned in her seat to face Troia, “How’s the whole ambassador thing going?”

“It’s… going,” Troia replied with a shrug and a look of amusement on her face. “Speaking on behalf of all of Themyscira is still intimidating, and America still hasn’t forgiven us for that attack on Washington a few years back, which makes things difficult. At least Garth is there, so I have a friend around.”

“That’s good to hear. It has to be more exciting than reporting on the Rogues robbing a bank for the fifty-third time in the last five years,” Linda said, folding her hands together in her lap. “There are only so many ways you can say ‘The Flash fought Captain Cold and Weather Wizard’ without sounding like a broken record.”

“I’m sure the citizens of Keystone appreciate it, though,” the other woman said, reaching down to scratch Gar right behind the ears, fingers digging into his fluffy green fur. 

“Mmm… right there,” Gar replied, tongue sticking out and tail wagging back and forth like a metronome. “Have you ever considered going into massage therapy? I think you’d be good at it.”

Troia scoffed, looking offended as she pulled her hand back and held it to her chest. “You just want to see me be the one _on_ the massage table, perv,” she said, laughing and earning herself a glare from Garfield.

“We all know how that will go,” he replied, standing up and changing back into human form. “With anyone who tries to touch you ending up on the floor, writhing in pain.”

“Speaking from experience here, or?” Linda leaned in, arching an eyebrow and smirking over at Troia, curious to see where this would go.

“I may have turned into a spider and slipped into the girls’ rooms at the Tower once or twice back in the day, I’ll freely admit it. But that’s about it,” he said, throwing up his hands in defeat. Somehow, Linda didn’t entirely believe him, either because she had a good nose for sniffing out half-truths, or because he was just that easy to read. 

The answer would have to come later, though, because the next of their guests arrived, his chrome plating polished to a reflective sheen. “Did I miss the party?” Victor Stone, alias Cyborg (for obvious reasons) bellowed out, carrying a set of loudspeakers over each shoulder.

“Vic, my man!” Gar ran over to meet him on the patio, Wally close on his heels and the others not too far behind. “Bringing the tunes, I see. Need a little help with those?”

“That would be great. I carried these all the way down from the Watchtower-” Vic started, only to be cut off by Wally.

“And boy, are your arms tired?” he asked with a smirk, rolling his eyes in tandem with Linda at his own terrible joke. Did all of the men in this group have the same awful sense of humor? It was starting to seem that way. 

“Suck it up, chrome-dome, you teleported just like I did,” Troia commented, giving Vic a playful swat on the arm. She took a step back, giving Gar room as he morphed into a gorilla, hauling the speakers over his shoulder and setting them down beside the house. 

“That I did,” Vic replied, stretching out his arms. There’s the gentle whirr of mechanical actuators underneath, reminding everyone present that, in case it wasn’t obvious from plain sight, he wasn’t quite human. Linda had heard the story of how he became a… well, a cyborg, and hearing that, she was honestly amazed at how well-adjusted he’d become. She would never be able to adapt like he did.

“Please,” Linda said, gesturing toward the chairs on the patio. “Take a seat, relax, catch up with everyone. We’ll eat after everyone’s here.”

“Shouldn’t be long now,” Wally added, holding up his phone, which bore the image of a six-foot-tall orange-skinned woman with long, flowing hair, wearing a baby on her chest and holding the hand of a young girl. “Kory says she’s on her way, she should be here in just a minute.”

“Still no Dick?” Vic asked. Wally, Troia, and Linda all shared a look, and shook their heads, none of them really wanting to broach the subject much further than that. “I see. God, I miss him.”

“We all do, man,” Wally replied, and just from the look on his face, Linda wished they hadn’t brought up the topic for the third time that day. But there was really no way around it. Their little group was incomplete without him there. There was a hole that nobody else could really fill, and even Linda, who was never a Teen Titan, felt it.

“If anyone knew what he was up to, it would be Kory,” Troia chimed in, and the rest of the group nodded in agreement. “Given that they’re, you know.” She held up a hand, her index and middle fingers crossed.

“Yeah, maybe she’ll be able to fill us in,” Wally said, reaching across to take Linda’s hand in his, their fingers laced together. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze - code for “everything is going to be fine, and if it isn’t, you’re all superheroes. You can deal with it.”

Their small talk went on for a good few minutes more - talking about Vic’s recent excursion into deep space, Gar’s acting career, why nobody tried to make Green Arrow’s spicy chili this year, and perhaps most importantly, whether pineapple belongs on pizza or not. (The final verdict: three in favor, two opposed. Jay abstained.)

The conversation was interrupted by a pair of what seemed to be fireballs shooting across the sky - one large and orange and the other smaller and a purple-black in color. The pair stopped in the air above the Park-West house, slowly lowering to the ground and revealing themselves to be none other than the next member of their little group - Koriand’r, the alien princess known to the world as Starfire.

She was dressed comfortably, in a violet tank top and yoga pants, and strapped to her chest was a babbling baby boy, about a year old. What had appeared to be fire was simply her hair, long, curly, and fire-orange, radiating light at the ends and giving the appearance that it was burning.

Beside her, and holding her hand, was a young girl in a Wonder Woman t-shirt and shorts, a carbon copy of her mother at that age except for her hair, which was a midnight black, and her skin, a more human-looking tan compared to her mother’s spray-tan orange. 

Her arrival got the attention of everyone in the yard, including Jai and Irey, who had kept themselves occupied by having Jay entertain them - a task the older man was more than happy to take on. The twins looked up from their place on their knees in the grass, hunting for bugs, and grinned over at the girl, rushing to meet her as her toes came to touch the ground.

“Mar’i!” Irey exclaimed, embracing the older girl in a huge. “You can fly now!”

“Well… sort of. I’m not allowed to do it without Mom around, ‘cause I still fall a lot,” Mar’i Grayson replied, releasing Irey and taking Jai in her arms for a similar embrace. “I fell on the way here. It was so embarrassing…”

As the twins dragged their friend off to join in the hunt for bugs, Linda shook her head. “Wise beyond her years, isn’t she?” she commented, wishing that her own kids would show that kind of maturity from time to time. 

“She gets it from Lian,” Kory commented, taking her other child from the carrier on her chest and cradling him gently within her arms. “I’ve been having Roy watch her a lot recently when I’m busy with League work, and, well… she’s been rubbing off on her.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. We should have the Harpers over for dinner more often, honey,” Wally said, taking a glance outside of the group at the kids and grinning from ear to ear. Linda could just tell he was thinking about how Barry would have loved to see this - his nephews taking an interest in science, even if only a passing one. Maybe one day, they’ll all be together again. It wasn’t like resurrection was entirely unheard of - hell, her and Wally had been through their own variations on the theme before.

“Okay. You invite him and I’ll cook,” Linda replied. That actually wasn’t a bad idea. Lian would be a much-needed good influence on the kids who was closer to their age, and it had been ages since they’d caught up with Roy.

“So, I see Mar’i is flying now,” Vic commented, leaning back against one of the speakers and tapping away at a viewscreen projected from his forearm. A techno track started blaring out from the speakers at a volume so loud, Linda thought they’d get a noise complaint from the neighbors.

Thankfully, Vic realized his error, tapped a few buttons on his display, and the song reduced in volume before that could happen. “When did that happen?” he finished, seemingly unfazed by his little gaffe.

“Her metagene activated just a few days ago,” Kory said, a proud smile on her face as she looked over to where her daughter was, floating just a few inches above the ground while Jai and Irey looked on, starstruck. “It has been a learning process, but I am taking her through all the flight exercises I learned back on Tamaran. X’Hal, it is exhausting, especially when I also have to care for little Jacob here.”

She bent down to kiss the child in her arms on the forehead, and he giggled in response, happily babbling like he was giving an address to the entire Justice League. Linda’s heart melted a little at the sight, recalling when Jai and Irey were that small and did exactly the same thing.

“Well, you’re doing a wonderful job,” Troia chimed in, resting a hand on Kory’s shoulder and smiling softly over at her. “If you ever need a babysitter, you just call and I’ll watch them for a little while if I’m free, okay?”

“I do not think my children would appreciate you sitting on them, but thank you,” came the response from Kory, whose grip on English idioms still left something to be desired after all these years. Linda was told she learned languages from kissing people… was Grayson _really_ that bad with words? 

“Have you had the twins tested for the metagene yet?” asked Vic, one eyebrow raised as he looked over toward Linda and Wally. The couple looked at each other, and Linda gave Wally a gentle nudge, as if to say “you answer this one.”

“We haven’t. I know they say to screen them early so you can be prepared, but I’ve dealt with speedster kids before. I can handle it if they end up inheriting my powers,” Wally said, a smirk forming on his lips. “Besides, some things in life are better off being surprises.”

“You would say that, you big sap,” Gar added, slipping back into the circle of friends between Wally and Vic.

“Who’s the sap?” Vic asked, lips pursed as he shifted to face Gar and his arms crossed in front of his chest. “I seem to remember that just the other day, you were crying about snakes.”

“They don’t have any arms!” Gar argued, glaring back at his best friend before turning into a snake himself and slithering in a circle on the ground to prove his point. “See? No manual dexterity to be had! How do they expect to get anything done?”

“I don’t know, I almost like you better this way.” A cloud of black smoke and feathers coalesced near the place where Gar was standing, forming into a pallid young woman. Her hair was jet black, fading into a purple ombre at the tips, and she was wearing a navy turtleneck and black skinny jeans. However, the most distinguishing feature about her was easily the ruby set in the center of her forehead, which shone with an unnatural gleam that Linda always found mildly unsettling.

“Friend Raven!” Kory exclaimed, almost rushing over to hug the other woman before remembering that she had a baby in her arms and stopping short. “You have arrived!”

“Yep, I’m here,” came Raven’s completely deadpan reply, accompanied by a slight shrug and the smallest of smiles. “It’s good to see everyone. Even you, moron.”

With that, she bent down and picked up the snake from the ground, which slithered up her arm, coiling around it like there was no place in the world it would rather be.

“Oh, you’re just saying that because you love me so much,” he said, tongue flicking in and out of his mouth and brushing against Raven’s cheek.

“You’re right,” she admitted, her facial expression barely changing from one moment to the next, but allowing a brief glimpse into her otherwise implacable inner self. “I do.”

“See? I knew it!” Garfield changed back into human form, landing in Raven’s arms and looking up at her, an over-the-top, lovestruck look on his face. Linda could have sworn there were hearts in his pupils if one looked close enough.

“Don’t make me change my mind and drop you,” Raven replied, glaring down at him, her brow furrowed. She then leaned in closer and whispered something imperceptible in Gar’s ear, which made his face turn a bright emerald in hue.

He rolled out of her arms, his posture stiff as a board and a completely neutral, stoic look on his face. She had the poor guy whipped good, Linda thought.

Before the sexual tension could grow any thicker, Troia cut in, displaying the diplomatic prowess that got her a job at the Themysciran embassy in the first place. “Well, now that we’re all here, why don’t we go eat? I wouldn’t want all the food to get cold.”

“Sounds good to me! I could go for a few burgers right now,” Vic commented, eyeing the still-warm stack of grilled meat on the picnic table. “The best thing about being a cyborg is that I can eat whatever I want and not have to worry.”

“Oh, that the rest of us would have that luxury,” Linda said, trying not to think about how big the Park-West household’s grocery bill usually was thanks to her husband’s extremely high metabolism. It made trying to keep a slim figure for those in the house without super-speed extremely difficult. “Wally, would you be a dear and round up the kids?”

“Sure thing, honey.” And he was off, a crimson blur across the backyard, returning a few seconds later with a West twin in each arm and Mar’i perched upon his back. “All rounded up.”

“Great.” She kissed him on the cheek and took a seat as the group started to gather around the table, every spot filled except for one at the very end, across from Kory. They’d set a place for Dick, just on the off chance that he’d show up. Nobody mentioned anything of it - nobody really wanted to broach the topic again - but it was fairly obvious that the spot would remain empty.

“Alright, let’s dig in!” Gar said, reaching across the table for a tofu burger but finding his arm held in place by Raven’s fingers around it.

“We need to say grace first,” she insisted, and the entire table looked at her with wide eyes. “What? Just because I’m the daughter of a demon, it doesn’t mean I can’t be grateful. Besides, my magic senses have been on edge since I got here, and a couple of protective incantations can’t hurt things.”

Linda nodded her head, urging Raven to go on and then looking past the table at the moly plant in their back garden, a gift from Troia designed to ward off certain magical influences in the past. Between that and the magical safeguards Zatanna put on their house after Eclipso’s devastating attacks on the superhero community, they should be fairly well-covered, but a little more never hurt.

Raven’s hands started to glow, spheres of energy surrounding them that seemed to suck out all of the light in the immediate area. She closed her eyes and bowed her head, and started to chant: “Azarath, metrion, zinthos.” A pentagram appeared on the ground beneath them, arcane symbols inscribed in circles within. There was a flash of light and a sound like a flock of birds taking off from the ground, and just as soon as it had begun, it was finished.

“There,” she said, taking her napkin and placing it in her lap. “That should keep most magical threats from harming us for the next few hours. It would take something exceptionally powerful to get through the barrier I’ve built around us.”

“What barrier? I don’t see anything,” Wally said, about to stand up from his seat and run around the perimeter of the house, Linda was sure. A hand on his arm kept him seated, and allowed Raven to finish.

“It’s invisible to those who don’t have their senses attuned to the realm of legerdemain,” she offered in the way of explanation. “And intangible, too. But spells and the like will be absorbed by it. Anyway, let us eat.”

“Finally. I’m famished,” Gar said, reaching out again and grabbing his much-desired tofu burger, which immediately got drenched in mustard.

“When you are finished, Garfield, would you pass me that mustard?” Kory asked, tilting her head to the side and raising an eyebrow.

“Only after everyone else has had it, Star,” came the reply from Gar, who passed the bottle off to Vic on his left and then took a scoop of Troia’s salad. “We don’t want a repeat of last time.”

Last time, Linda recalled, Kory drank all the mustard straight from the bottle and left none for the rest of them. Wally had to run out to the grocery store in the middle of their meal and get some for everyone. Since then, it was decided that she only got the mustard once everyone else got what they wanted.

After everyone had their food and had a few minutes to start eating and strike up some light conversation, Mar’i piped up, looking over at the empty chair and tugging on her mother’s arm. “Mom, is Dad going to be here?”

Kory shook her head, setting her fork down on the edge of her plate and bending down to meet her daughter at eye level. “I’m sorry, my little pulsar, but I don’t think he is.”

Tears formed at the corners of Mari’s eyes, and she did her best to hold them in, trying to prove that she was a big girl. She sniffled, and one errant tear fell out of line, travelling down her cheek. “B-but you said he’d be here. You promised!”

“Well, sometimes Mommy is wrong…” Kory started, but her attempts to comfort her were drawn out by Mar’i’s tears, caught by a ketchup-stained napkin held to her face. 

“I-I’m a big girl. Big girls don’t cry…” Mar’i choked out, but Irey reached over and hooked their pinkies together, leaning in closer.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Irey asked, using her normal outside speaking voice, loud enough for the entire table to hear. Mar’i nodded in reply, and Irey, looking quite proud of herself, said: “Sometimes Mommy cries, too, and she’s a big girl.”

Linda held back a laugh at the sheer audacity to say such a thing that could only come from a young child, and instead felt her heart melting straight through her rib cage at how adorable it was.

“She does not!” Jai said, poking Irey in the cheek with his fork, an indignant scowl on his lips. He looked like he was ready to defend his mother’s honor in a duel to the death - it was a good thing he wasn’t old enough to handle knives yet.

“Does too!” came the reply from Irey, who turned on a dime, picking up her own fork and staring at her twin. “Right, Mommy?”

Linda hummed for a second in thought, and opened her mouth to speak. “Well-”

_Breep-eep-eep-eep!_

A loud chiming came from her husband’s pants pocket, joined by a matching chime from Kory’s diaper bag, and from Vic’s arm screen. Wally already had his Justice League communicator in the palm of his hand, a frown coming over his lips.

“What a time for a distress signal. Do you have to take it?” Linda asked, leaning in closer to her husband and raising an eyebrow. Here she was, really hoping for a day with no interruptions. She should have known better.

“I don’t know yet, but probably.” Wally pressed the button on the end of the communicator, radioing in to the Watchtower satellite, orbiting at 22,300 miles above the Earth’s surface. “Flash to Watchtower. What’s the situation?”

A cheerful, female voice came through the speaker, bearing a heavy British accent. Linda took a moment to recognize it - it was that of Godiva, one of the newer recruits to the team, doing her rotation on monitor duty. “I’m not entirely sure, but we’ve got a distress call from Central City, and you’re the closest. Some man in a magician’s outfit - long cape, ugly mustache, magic wand in his hand - robbing a bank. Oracle says he’s bad news.”

“Kadabra,” Wally and Linda said in unison, a look of horror on their faces. Kadabra was no small threat, and bank robberies weren’t really his M.O. This had to be some part of a larger plot.

Linda’s phone vibrated in her pocket at the same time. She pulled it out, sighing as she stood up from her seat. “They need me at the station. Mind giving me a ride on the way, honey?” she asked, linking hands with her husband and giving his arm a slight tug. 

“Of course.” He leaned down and gave her a peck on the lips, a red-and-gold costume materializing around him from a signet ring on his left hand as he did so. He scooped her up into his arms, and looked around at his comrades.

Raven had already magically changed into her costume, a midnight blue cloak with a gold-set ruby brooch serving as a clasp at her collarbone, and a matching blue bodysuit underneath. Troia had done likewise, twirling on her heel and changing instantaneously into a black sleeveless bodysuit covered in a starfield pattern, with a shortsword hanging at one hip and a coiled lasso at the other.

“Showoffs, all of you,” Vic said, crossing his arms in front of his chest and smirking at the group.

“Says the man who does not wear a costume,” Kory sniped back, leaning down and kissing both of her children on the forehead before returning to face Wally and Linda. “I must adjourn to go change. May I avail myself of your restroom, Linda?”

“Go ahead,” Linda said from her place in her husband’s arms, giving a nod and then looking over at Mar’i, Jai, and Irey as Kory strode off. 

They couldn’t stay here by themselves, and taking them into the battle would be way too dangerous to even consider for another six or seven years. She shifted her gaze over to Jay. “Mind sitting this one out and taking the kids elsewhere? Kadabra has a history of targeting Wally and I specifically, so they’d be safer at your house. Get Bart if you need an extra pair of hands to help you.”

“I’d be honored to,” the older speedster replied, scooping up Jacob in one arm, Mar’i on the other, and hauling the twins on his back. “All aboard the Flash Express!” he said, mimicking the sound of a steam engine before speeding off into the distance.

“Okay, time’s ticking, folks,” Troia said, looking toward the empty chair and frowning. With Dick gone, someone had to step up and take the leadership role, and if nobody else was going to do it, it might as well have been her. “Let’s get over there and kick some ass before Kadabra can hurt anyone more than he already has.”

“Hell yeah!” Gar pumped his fist, shifting into the form of an eagle and soaring up into the air. Soon enough, Raven joined him, along with Kory, now dressed in her purple-and-white Starfire costume.

Below, on foot, Vic and Troia gave chase after Wally, who was barely holding himself back from turning into a red dot in the distance. 

“Mind saying the line?” Troia asks, having managed to catch up with him for just long enough to give the suggestion. “I know none of us are actually on the team any more, but it feels right.”

“It would be my honor,” Wally said, his voice almost drowned out by the sound of the wind in his face and the lightning crackling at his feet as he ran. “Titans, together!”

* * *

Moments after the heroes disappeared over the horizon, a red sports car whipped around the corner into Wally and Linda’s subdivision, coming to a stop in their driveway. The driver’s door swung up and opened, and out from the car stepped a young man.

He checked his jet-black hair in the driver’s side mirror, taking off his black sunglasses and hooking them onto the collar of his tight grey t-shirt. He wasn’t sure if he would have been able to make it - hell, he was certain he’d have to miss this until a day or two ago, but he’d managed to turn some of the social standing he’d earned at Leviathan into a day off.

He walked up the driveway toward the house, and then took a right to round into the backyard. As he passed, he felt a slight chill run up his spine - he’d felt the feeling of Raven’s magic enough times to know that she had done something, some sort of ward against incantations that might come her way.

It had been so long since he’d seen everybody. He hadn’t even been able to contact his own wife and kids for months! Little Jake was probably so much bigger than when he saw him last. He hated to miss so many major milestones in his son’s life, but what was he going to do, tell Batman no? (In hindsight, he would have told Batman no and made Tim do this mission. Or Cass. _They_ didn’t have a family of their own to take care of.)

He started to round the corner, then stopped. It was too quiet. He’d expected to hear the sounds of light conversation, of Kory’s laugh at one of Gar’s terrible jokes, of the kids running around and enjoying their childhood in a way he never got to. But instead, all he heard was the wind, the electric hum from a speaker system, and the song of a robin perched in a nearby lilac bush.

Finishing his journey into the backyard, he was met with an empty table, covered in half-eaten plates and half-empty glasses. It didn’t take long for him to surmise that they’d all been called away on some mission or another. He’d happily join them if he wasn’t still dead to the world. He couldn’t blow his cover, as much as he wanted to give Batman the proverbial middle finger and do exactly that.

So, he supposed, the only thing left to do was to wait and surprise everyone when they got back. Dick Grayson put his sunglasses back on, lay back in a lounge chair with his arms tucked behind his head, and smiled.

For once, everything was going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Earth-53! As the summary says, this is a hybrid of New Earth, Prime Earth, Young Justice, and the DCAU continuities, although mostly leaning on the former. Here, characters are allowed to grow old, retire, etc. - legacy is one of my favorite things about DC so it's really emphasized in this AU.
> 
> A few continuity notes for things not explained explicitly in the story:
> 
> \- Joan Garrick passed away of cancer about two years before this story takes place. Combine that with Alan Scott's untimely passing thanks to the Starheart's malevolence, and Jay's had a rough few years.  
> \- Dick and Kory got married as initially planned in the 1990s. Mirage and the rest of the Team Titans do not exist.  
> \- Donna Troy goes simply by Troia here, as in Young Justice, with "Donna Troy" being her assumed human name just as "Diana Prince" is Diana's.  
> \- The Titans kids are all alive and well, Lian and Cerdian included.  
> \- The Justice League has an expanded roster like in JLU - Godiva is one of the latest additions, a nod to New 52 Justice League International.  
> \- Dick is currently Agent 37 for Leviathan, rather than Spyral in this universe. His faked death was rather similar to Artemis's in Young Justice, except with Rose Wilson doing the stabbing.
> 
> And yes, this is readable as a one-shot, but rest assured there's much more to come. This is only the beginning, both of "Pandora's Box" and of Earth-53 in general! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below, I'd be happy to answer! :)


End file.
